In ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ we’ll be introduced to a new planet called Crait and now Marvel has a comic set after the first Death Star was blown up which will introduce us to the world years prior in ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Storms Of Crait’! This comic is set immediately after the events of ‘A New Hope’ when Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia are looking for a new home for the Rebellion and Crait is one of the planets on their list.

The book will be penned by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker with art by Mike Mayhew. It won’t come out prior to ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ but the wait won’t be long as the release date is scheduled for December 27th, 2017!

The pair have previously written novels in the “Star Wars: Join the Resistance” series so are used to exploring a galaxy far far away. When they had a chance to do a one-shot set in the era of the original trilogy they couldn’t have been happier!

When building up the history of a world that will soon grace the big screen, Acker shares:

“It was the most fun tightrope to walk, getting to write for these characters. Our YA novel series takes place in the era of “The Force Awakens,” so this time we got to write the characters in the time period we grew up on. That didn’t feel like a tightrope at all!”

While Blacker added:

“It actually didn’t feel too precarious because, while the book does set up a location that will pay off in the new movie, our story takes place entirely in the time between “A New Hope” and “The Empire Strikes Back.” Once we had that time period nailed down, the difficult part was keeping the characters consistent with the timeframe. Obviously, we end up knowing a lot more about the lives of Leia, Luke, Han, and Chewbacca than they do at that time. They’re still pretty young and untested, despite their recent success in destroying the Death Star. So, we had to put ourselves in that mindset and remember, like, they don’t know what an Ewok is yet.”

It seemed that the greater concern for the writing duo was the era and not ties to the upcoming film. Looks like we won’t have much to worry about on the location being introduced so early.

As to why they decide to go to Crait? Acker states:

“It’s got some strategic advantages to it, so that it makes sense as a base, but I’d hate to spoil anything by saying much more than that. Also, Leia has personal reasons to make a go of the planet.”

While Blacker actually expands about the reason that Leia wants to go. He doesn’t go into specifics but as to why they’re heading to the planet:

“Leia has an emotional connection to Crait, which forms the heart of the story. She’s the one who brings them there and she has a lot at stake.”

After what happened to Alderaan, I’m not sure picking a planet that you have an emotional attachment to is the wisest of choices.

When asked how they ended up creating tension and a sense of mystery as we know where the characters go right after this? Blacker has an answer that ruins continuity as we know it!

“It all comes down to the emotions of the characters. The story has to matter. They have to care about things. The stakes for both Leia and Luke feel big in this story.

Also, we kill Chewbacca. The wookiee you see in “Empire,” “Jedi,” and “The Force Awakens” is not Chewie.”

Clearly he was joking about Chewie. Right guys? Guys?…. They tried to get him to stop but Acker just kept going:

“A good thing about writing for Star Wars has been that even our joke-around answers become totally canon. We’ve gone mad with canon power and we abuse it terribly. Ben Kenobi is really Darth Vader! Kenobi is Vader! Vader is Kenobi! Canon!”

Clearly, we aren’t going to get a straight answer out of this one. Still, it is always fun getting a new story about Luke and Leia in their younger years.

Are you looking forward to reading ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Storms of Crait’ at the end of the month? Do you think there might even be a hidden tie-in to the movie that they aren’t sharing? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: Marvel